Bowling for John Murtha

Apparently "You're either with us or against us" has changed. The new Bush Admin admonition is,"You're either with us, or you're a far left liberal like Michael Moore."

Let's be honest here. Yes, there was bipartisan support for the invasion of Iraq. It sounds like the CIA wasn't so industrious about the quality and/or accuracy of its intelligence., and that information was given to congressional elephants and donkeys alike.

But now we are 32 months in, with over 2100 American casualties, and somewhere between 26 and 30,000 Iraqi casualties. (Source is www.iraqbodycount.net, as yet an unconfirmed source for factual information. Still, even if they are off by a factor of 10....that would be a figure in excess of current American casualties. Whose definition of freedom and democracy is this?!?)

Enter John Murtha. (Or rather, recognize John Murtha, who has been in congress since '74, and apparently "with us" until last week when it was suddenly discovered he's a coward. This, despite his almost 40 years of service in the Marine Corps and tours of duty and Purple Hearts in Korea and Viet Nam. Can you say Swift Boat?)

So last week, as we're all reserving our free-range turkeys from family owned farms within 200 miles of our residence, John Murtha suggests in a vastly improvised and emotional speech that maybe it's time to phase out of Iraq. (Who do we think we are anyway? The most currently visible impact of our Iraq occupation is the unification of insurgent troops against us. The U.S. in Iraq is not making Iraq stronger and more ready for democracy. It's just making the U.S. poorer and less ready...for pretty much everything.)

Yes, I digress. Fact is, John Murtha tries to enter into a dialogue about pullout, say in six months, and what happens?

"You want pullout? I'll show you pullout!"

Suddenly there is a proposal on the floor of Congress for immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq. (Dude, where's my turkey? I'm hungry!) Who in their right mind would vote for immediate withdrawal from this war torn country?! Geesh, even the music director of SF Opera is sticking around til 2006. (http://www.sanfran.com/archives/view_story/107/)

That's some dirty politics. If a guy from the other team suggests a some reasonable discourse, just start bowling in a different alley and don't tell him.

To consider: Lynne Truss, the best-selling author of "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" has a new book out. This one's about manners! Excellent.

I'd like to put a proposal on the floor. Yes, the floor right here in my apartment. Are they going to deny me that too?

I hereby propose that we are nicer to each other today. Maybe even tomorrow and next year too. In 6 months, we will not have all our troops out of Iraq. But, in 6 months, maybe we can look back and see that we didn't resort to name calling of those requesting dialogue?

Worst of all, when someone requests dialogue to abate or phase out a quagmire, I would not think the proper response is what happened last Friday night.

Immediate pullout vs. 6 month pullout. Sound the same to you?